Marques K. Brownlee (born December 3, 1993), also known professionally as MKBHD, is an American YouTuber, best known for his technology-focused videos. The channel, whose name is a concatenation of MKB (Brownlee's initials) and HD (for high-definition),[4] has over 7 million subscribers and over 1 billion total video views. In August 2013, Vic Gundotra, former Senior Vice President, Social for Google,[5][6] called Brownlee "the best technology reviewer on the planet right now".[4][7] During one of the 2016 Democratic presidential primary debates that was cosponsored by YouTube, Brownlee asked the candidates, by video, whether tech companies and the government can find a middle ground over encryption while considering rights to privacy and national security.[8]

YouTube career

MKBHD joined YouTube on March 21, 2008.[9] He first started uploading technology videos in January 2009, while still in high school, about new products or reviews of products he already owned.[10][11] He says his first videos were screencasting where he would post an image and just talk over it, then responded to requests from viewers of what they would like to watch.[11][12] His first several hundred videos were primarily hardware tutorials and freeware.[4] He was later approached by companies to demonstrate their paid software and hardware, but only reviews products that would be of interest to his audience of technology enthusiasts.[4] He is noted for responding to viewers' feedback about what questions they have, and features they want explained, as well as demonstrating a "deep knowledge of the products he discusses, and his understanding of what his audience wants to learn".[13] His reviews are often timely, coming out the same day or soon after for anticipated products. He is arguably best known today for his content about smartphones. As of December 2018, his channel has gained over 7.4 million subscribers,[9] making MKBHD one of the most subscribed-to "tech-based" YouTube channels.[citation needed] On average, Brownlee uploads one video per week. The channel receives an average of over 6,000 subscribers every day as of September 2018.[14] Brownlee uploaded his 1000th video on March 29, 2018.[15]

Brownlee's reviews have been promoted by other review sites as well. Engadget promoted the site in January 2012 when they featured his tour of the then-new cloud storage service called Insync.[16] In November 2013, one of Brownlee's most viral videos was posted based on the LG G Flex.[17] He performed various scratch tests to portray the self-healing ability of the device.[18] The video hit a million views on the first day. As of September 2018[update], the video has over 7 million views.[19] In December 2013, Brownlee did an interview with Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside.[20][21] In May 2014, Brownlee did the first over-the-air interview with Evan Blass, also known by his previous name, evleaks.[22]

Brownlee's video review and scratch test of a rumored 4.7 inch micromax 7 front glass component, uploaded July 7, 2014,[23] gained immediate popularity, being featured on sites such as The Verge, Forbes Tech, HuffPost Tech, CNET, and Time Magazine. The video appeared on NBC news, and in newspapers across the world. As of September 2018[update], the video has gained over 9.1 million views on YouTube and has had over 60,000 ratings.[23] Brownlee also has a similar video regarding a dummy model of the iPhone 6, uploaded a couple of months earlier, which (as of May 2017) has since gained over 7 million views on YouTube.[24]

In December 2015, Brownlee did an interview with Kobe Bryant, a professional NBA basketball player, and uploaded the results, titled Talking Tech with Kobe Bryant! in which he talks about Tech interests of Kobe and the most recent Kobe designed Nike shoes, the Kobe 11.[25][26]

In October 2016, he interviewed Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi during the release of their latest MacBook Pro 2016.[27]

Smartphone Awards

In December 2014, Brownlee started his Smartphone Award Series, where he picks the best phones in certain categories from the past year. In 2017, Brownlee started to create physical awards that were featured in the video, some of which were later requested and sent to the companies whose phones won them. The Smartphone Awards are usually posted towards the middle of December, after all of the phones of the year have been released and tested.